Tailgate covers are commonly used with truck bed liners to protect and improve the appearance of the cargo area of a pick-up truck. With the advent of the light truck as the second family car, the appearance of trucks has had to meet new standards imposed by these new consumers.
One appearance item finding its way onto more and more pick-up trucks is a tailgate rail cap which overlies the upper edge of a tailgate. This has given rise to a problem in designing a tailgate cover. Tailgate covers, in a way similar to truck bed liners, typically employ vacuum thermoformed, high density polyethylene in their construction. Typically, the polyethylene material is black. Although polyethylene can be made in a wide variety of colors, black imparts a high resistance to ultraviolet breakdown of the plastic caused by exposure to sunlight. Black also tends to hide the soil and is appearance-compatible with a wide range of truck paint schemes.
A problem arises when a black tailgate cover is utilized on a truck tailgate which has a rail cap. If the tailgate cover does not abut closely with the tailgate cap, a gap between the tailgate cap and the cover may be left which may visually produce a line of discordant color between tailgate cap and the tailgate cover. Such a gap presents an appearance of poor fit and finish which is highly undesirable.
One known solution to this problem is to provide the truck with a specially designed tailgate cap which has a sleeve into which the upper edge of a tailgate cover may be received. However, such a specialized tailgate cap presents a discordant appearance when not used with a tailgate cover. Furthermore, such a cap must be supplied as manufacturer's original equipment, or alternatively must be used to replace a manufacturer's original equipment cap. In the first case the cover may not be used with a wide range of trucks, and in the second case a user is required to remove and dispose of the original equipment cap.
What is needed is a tailgate cover with features that assure alignment with the tailgate cap to prevent unsightly gaps therebetween.